"Let it be one cheerful rational voice amidst the din of mourners and polemics." Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1840.
A Brit-in-Helsinki's blog about global politics, climbing, cycling, things that annoy me and other bits of life. But not necessarily in that order.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A not-about-Gaza post

I've been asked to blog something about Gaza for work, and I've wanted to say something about it here as well, but I haven't yet. It's all too fucking miserable to be honest. I think Hamas have shown themselves again to be zealots who don't care who gets killed - including their own kids - if it makes their bizarre point. I think the Israeli leadership has shown itself to be crass and willing to play politics with other people's lives. The IDF has shown itself ready to use massive force recklessly and then to lie about their civilian killing mistakes - even when they surely were just that, mistakes. Too many pro-Palestianian protestors around the world have turned out to be religious zealots who are surfing a new wave of religious anti-semitism or ridiculously cockeyed anarcho-leftist types who are all about teenage posturing and are in it for the ruck as much as anything else. And too many of the pro-Israeli voices are ridiculously screaming "I'm the victim here!" which just makes them look foolish to any disinterested observer as the IDF artillery pounds Gaza and F16s and Cobra attack choppers swoop overhead. Meanwhile the Israeli people get further away from ever being able to live without fear and the Palestinian people continue to get pissed on from a great height. I wish I didn't care and that most people didn't deserve better, but they do - both Israelis and Palestinians.

Anyway, my day was hugely improved upon when by mistake on Youtube I found this:

One can not loose all faith in mankind when somewhere in Tokyo there is a man who dresses up in an Imperial Stormtrooper costume and dances for apparently no reason at all. Tokyo Dance Trooper, I salute you.

10 comments:

Wow, that is the perfect description of a lot of the folks in the SF Bay Area who protest in support of Palestine on the basis of their incredibly oversimplified and essentially ignorant views. You are right when you say the whole situation is completely miserable- nobody is right here.

Indeed... I've watched the heat on different internet forums around this issue, and this time have absolutely no interest in taking part. This whole conflict keeps reminding me of Robert Fisk's comment some years back, "The problem with American foreign policy in the Middle East is that Americans are continually trying to sort the good guys from the bad guys, and in the Middle East there are no good guys."

Quizbo's understanding of the ME conflict, is partly due to a corrupted academy which spawns journalists and analysts with an *upside down & inside out* view of the region.

It's a shame as well as being ironic that the Arab-Israeli conflict which happen to be the most widely reported conflict in the world, has not increased a factual understanding of that conflict, but on the contrary, has created a vast number of badly misinformed people who would actually think that Israel is the moral equivelent of Hamas.

Hahaha... wow KGS, how did you read any of that into my note about Robert Fisk's comment? Seriously, wait for an actual argument to be made before you launch off into hilariously insecure self-righteousness.

Toby is a good sport with you, but the rest of us don't have to play the role of good host. I know slinging the "you're a victim of false consciousness" rhetoric feels good, and that's why clowns like Mao Zedong dug it so much... but really, the rest of us don't visit Toby's blog to sort the ideologically pure from the unwashed. We're just here for some cool photos, interesting ideas and links, and perhaps good debate if the other party seems to have a clue how that's done.